New York, NY, August 2, 2018 – Centinel Spine, LLC is pleased to announce that UnitedHealthcare®, the nation’s second largest commercial insurer, has issued a positive medical policy for Lumbar Total Disc Replacement (TDR). This decision affects over 16 million patients covered through UnitedHealthcare, and means that three out of the four largest US commercial providers now have positive policies for the company’s prodisc® L Anterior Lumbar Total Disc Replacement system.

This is the second major policy change for Lumbar TDR since May 2018, and follows the recent TRICARE® policy change that added 9.5 million covered lives. These combined decisions provide over 25 million additional patients with access to this life-changing technology. This trend of positive coverage decisions is bolstered by the long-term clinical outcomes and economic value that TDR provides to both patients and the healthcare system.

prodisc is the most studied Total Disc Replacement technology in the world, with over 400 publications demonstrating its long-term effectiveness in over 125,000 patients. This recent decision by UnitedHealthcare is the culmination of over 30 years of clinical evidence generated by Centinel Spine and its originators, multiple FDA studies, and long-term clinical success supporting the effectiveness of the prodisc technology. This recent coverage change further solidifies Centinel Spine as the worldwide leading company addressing spinal disease through anterior access to the spine.

“The impending positive coverage decision by UnitedHealthcare will soon allow millions of Americans access to lumbar disc replacement, a technology that has proven itself over the past 30+ years globally. High-level scientific evidence from FDA studies in the US have clearly shown the safety, effectiveness, decreased adjacent level degeneration, and durability of improvement when properly-selected patients are implanted with a lumbar disc replacement instead of having a fusion, ” stated spine surgeon Jack Zigler, M.D., Texas Back Institute, Plano, TX.

“We believe the recent TRICARE and UnitedHealthcare policy decisions further validate the clinical outcomes of lumbar total disc replacement. These positive decisions provide millions of additional patients with access to a proven, life-changing technology. Centinel Spine remains focused on providing surgeons and patients with the widest breadth of technology platforms to address spinal disease by an anterior approach. To that end, we plan to continue to invest in motion-preserving solutions and expand the clinical body of evidence and global adoption of lumbar disc replacement,” stated John Viscogliosi, CEO of Centinel Spine.

About Centinel Spine

Centinel Spine, LLC is the largest privately-held spine company, focused on anterior column reconstruction. For more information on Centinel Spine products and technologies, please visit the Company’s web site at www.CentinelSpine.com.

The company began operations in August 2008, through the merger-acquisition of two pioneering medical device companies: Raymedica, LLC and Surgicraft, LTD. Today, Centinel Spine still embraces the pioneering culture developed at both originating companies, and continues its corporate mission of becoming the leading anterior column support spine franchise, providing elegantly simple implants and instruments that are tissue-sparing and generate superior clinical outcomes.

Centinel Spine derived its name from the “Sentinel Sign”, the radiographic confirmation of a successful fusion anterior to the interbody device.